My tank has been up and running for 5+yrs and now I’m having brown algae problems, I have no measurable nitrate, nitrites, phosphates or ammonia but the brown algae will not go away. I am also losing a very large frogspawn (grew from two heads to over 60 and now is dying off). My calcium is around 440 and the alkalinity is 8KH. I have 150watt HQI metal halide (bulb is only 1 month old), and I only use RO/DI water (just check and TDS is 0). Zoos seam to be doing fine along with some mushrooms and recorida but my green star poly's seam to be receding. Not sure what else to do so looking for some suggestions. This may all have started due to my lack of attention to the tank last spring and this summer (only a few water changes over that period), but I have done 20% water changes every week for the last 6 wks and nothing seams to be helping. I am a new member to the club and look forward to any assistance.
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Brown Alage in 5 yr old 30 gallon reef tank.
- Thread starter bverhoog
- Start date
I am using an API test kit but I did bring sample to FishTown in Ramsey and they also get zero readings. What test kits do people recommend, for the first few years I rarely every even tested the water since I was not dosing anything and things in the tank were doing fine (maybe a bit naive on my part). My tank is a 30 gallon cube with a sump, I just use a red sea hang on protein skimmer and a floss pad in my sump (no other mechanical filtration). I only have two small damsels in the tank and around 30lbs of live rock
Sorry to hear that you are having trouble with your tank. Is there anything that could have stirred up your sandbed (it looks like crushed coral, which can be full of nasty gunk after a 5 year period)? Any animal losses (other than the frogspawn)?
Any chance something is leaching phosphates into the water, or that one of your test kits might not be accurate? When you say brown algae, is it a slime like algae, or a leaf like algae (I am sorry, I looked at your photos but had some trouble making them large enough to see the algae clearly)?
When GSPs die,they can do nasty things to the water in our tanks; are you running carbon? Gfo or phosban? How is your skimmate? (edit: I missed that you have a skimmer)
How is the oxygenation of your water? Any chance that there is stray voltage seeping into your tank?
Any chance something is leaching phosphates into the water, or that one of your test kits might not be accurate? When you say brown algae, is it a slime like algae, or a leaf like algae (I am sorry, I looked at your photos but had some trouble making them large enough to see the algae clearly)?
When GSPs die,they can do nasty things to the water in our tanks; are you running carbon? Gfo or phosban? How is your skimmate? (edit: I missed that you have a skimmer)
How is the oxygenation of your water? Any chance that there is stray voltage seeping into your tank?
Its more of a slime algae. I am getting some skimmate but not alot (typicall for what I have always had), its possible my test kits could not be accurate tomorrow I will take a sample to my LFS and have them check. I have some carbon (only what fits in the media chamber on my skimmer which is maybe a half cup), no Gfo or phosban. With my sump and skimmer I think I get good oxygenation. I also should mention that my hammer coral is not opening as much as it should either. Don't know about any stray voltage is that something that can be messured with a volt meter or do you just need to add a grounding probe, my LFS said stray voltage will not bother corols only fish and my two fish and two shrimp seam fine.
It looks like it could be either cyano or diatoms. The problem with the API test kits, is that the first graduation from 0, on the test color strip for Ammonia and Nitrite is .25, which is already 5 times greater than the recommended maximum threshold in a reef system @ .05. Both cyano bacteria and diatoms will survive very nicely at very low levels of these nutrients. If you're not running any type of GFO, that may likely be the problem. There is no "silver bullet" cure for this, it's just a matter of cleaning as much of it out, by siphoning, and starving it out by reducing whatever its feeding on, i.e. PO4, etc. There is a red slime remover that can be used, but if you don't cure the root of the problem it will continue to come back.
Here is a good read:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/bluegralgae.htm
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Looks like cyano, can't really tell from the pics. Have you had any temperature issues recently? How long are you running the light for? When you replaced the bulb, how old was the bulb before it? How deep is your sand bed and as Nikki said did anything churn it up recently? Have you ever cleaned your sand bed? I know members on here who went from a clean tank to cyano when a pistol shrimp dug into their sand.
falconut
NJRC Member
That looks like the gunky algae (?) I get in some areas of my tank. I just blast it with a turkey baster when I see it. It was a lot worse, before I got my PO4 down. If I recall correctly, I noticed it in mine somewhere after it was 4-5 years old. It seames to be growing in areas with heavy detritus buildup.
My problem was using the API kit, I could never match the color, so I assumed it was nothing. I decided to go to my LFS and pay them $5 to check my PO4 and it showed my tank was around 0.65 (if I remember correctly). This was while actively running GFO, just not replacing it enough. I went to replacing the GFO (around 1 cup) every week for a month. Then I got the Hanna Phosphate Checker and by that time it was reading 0.00 and the algae dissappeared. I believe that my LR was loaded with it and was leaching it out. Maybe your problem.
Recently I added a PH and decided to really stir my 1"-2" sandbed to help remove any nasties now that my circulation had increased. I do siphon the sandbed on occation, but not as much as I did this time. Suddenly, my sandbed got loaded with cyano. I siphoned it ago and it looked great, then back the next day. I even started to use a turkey baster to blow the sand and release the crud to be filtered out and blow the cyano apart. So, I guess even though I occationally siphon it, I shouldn't do it too much at one time. I guess what NikkiT said is what happened to me. My PO4 and NO3 still measure 0, through all of this. I didn't think to check for Ammonia and Nitrite. Maybe you should too if you haven't already.
My problem was using the API kit, I could never match the color, so I assumed it was nothing. I decided to go to my LFS and pay them $5 to check my PO4 and it showed my tank was around 0.65 (if I remember correctly). This was while actively running GFO, just not replacing it enough. I went to replacing the GFO (around 1 cup) every week for a month. Then I got the Hanna Phosphate Checker and by that time it was reading 0.00 and the algae dissappeared. I believe that my LR was loaded with it and was leaching it out. Maybe your problem.
Recently I added a PH and decided to really stir my 1"-2" sandbed to help remove any nasties now that my circulation had increased. I do siphon the sandbed on occation, but not as much as I did this time. Suddenly, my sandbed got loaded with cyano. I siphoned it ago and it looked great, then back the next day. I even started to use a turkey baster to blow the sand and release the crud to be filtered out and blow the cyano apart. So, I guess even though I occationally siphon it, I shouldn't do it too much at one time. I guess what NikkiT said is what happened to me. My PO4 and NO3 still measure 0, through all of this. I didn't think to check for Ammonia and Nitrite. Maybe you should too if you haven't already.
To add to all the previous questions / suggestions... have you changed salt recently or started using a new batch?
Been using the same salt batch for 6 months (reef crystals), but I did siphon my bed recently so that may have rased the phosphates. Also I did add two fish a few months back and now feed them flake food once a day (very light feeding). Should I add a phoshate reactor or is there any other option, I do have a sump and could add media in the sump.
Flake food is a know issue with adding PO4 to the tank. I would use a reactor for the GFO, since it is much more effective. What are you using for a skimmer?
falconut
NJRC Member
As downbeach said, a reactor is the best method by far for GFO.
Out of curiosity from previous comments in this thread, I went home and checked my Ammonia and Nitrites. Both were clearly 0 on my API test kits. So, what ever got stirred up from the sand bed, causing the cyano, isn't detectable on my kits. But, I did notice that the cyano is getting less than it was. So, you could try what I'm going to do for the cyano, just do normal water changes without disturbing my sand bed at all. And blow off any spots with that gunky brown algae and make sure to blow out all the detritis too.
Oh, and for food. I feed flakes, pellets and frozen, but mostly frozen. Just make sure, if you're having issues with PO4, then get a shrimp net and after the frozen food thaws, pour it through the net to remove the liquid, which I've heard is pretty high in PO4.
Out of curiosity from previous comments in this thread, I went home and checked my Ammonia and Nitrites. Both were clearly 0 on my API test kits. So, what ever got stirred up from the sand bed, causing the cyano, isn't detectable on my kits. But, I did notice that the cyano is getting less than it was. So, you could try what I'm going to do for the cyano, just do normal water changes without disturbing my sand bed at all. And blow off any spots with that gunky brown algae and make sure to blow out all the detritis too.
Oh, and for food. I feed flakes, pellets and frozen, but mostly frozen. Just make sure, if you're having issues with PO4, then get a shrimp net and after the frozen food thaws, pour it through the net to remove the liquid, which I've heard is pretty high in PO4.
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